AI War 1.014V (Harvester penalty removal)

[x4000]

Ah, can't wait for that! 

In the PM i said that start is slow, but i take it back, the start of the game is actually pretty fun now. For the first time one has to plan expansion and raids well in advance. But the high energy costs of shipyards still pain me, this rewards micro management and destruction of shipyards till you have 1 left (when you hit the limits) though playing at 100% boost and the lack of efficiency drop of harvesters means the problem is very very small if not minuscule

So far i guess the change has indeed be for the better

I have a few ideas in mind for an even faster start, because even if it does not bug you it does still bug me a bit.   Just basically giving the players some starting stuff for free that they would be building anyway, so that they can just get down to business.  The real variance in the start of the game is how you defend your wormholes and how you expand outward, so I just want to focus players on that.

Also in the new version, pausing ships will make them consume no energy.   More on that later, but I think that will help with your docks issue.

[eRe4s3r]

You will be happy to hear that i have an entirely new deep raid strategy all around ye eye bots. MK3 of those are super , and i mean they do kick massively ass

had i known that i would have used them for my entire neutering strategy from the beginning

[x4000]

You will be happy to hear that i have an entirely new deep raid strategy all around ye eye bots. MK3 of those are super , and i mean they do kick massively ass

had i known that i would have used them for my entire neutering strategy from the beginning

Awesome!  I'm glad to hear you've found a new purpose for EyeBots, I think they can be a strong unit if used right, but a lot of people have given them a miss because they were traditionally weaker.  I think your deep raiding strategy is really cool, and I'm glad that you can still maintain a form of that in the revamped economy.

[Admiral]

You will be happy to hear that i have an entirely new deep raid strategy all around ye eye bots. MK3 of those are super , and i mean they do kick massively ass

had i known that i would have used them for my entire neutering strategy from the beginning

Are you going to leave us in suspense???

[eRe4s3r]

Yes ;p I don't want this one to be nerfed, heh

[x4000]

Yes ;p I don't want this one to be nerfed, heh

  What makes you think I would do such a thing!

[Revenantus]

I bet the Xquisitor wants to know about that tactic almost as much as my super secret exploit that allows me to place harvesters in arbitrary locations...

[x4000]

I bet the Xquisitor wants to know about that tactic almost as much as my super secret exploit that allows me to place harvesters in arbitrary locations...

eRa's sounds fine to me at the moment, actually -- it sounds effective, but within the bounds of non-exploitative play.  But yours I hope you are kidding about...!

[Admiral]

OK, Eraser... Out with it!!! His Xness has given you a Get out of Nerf Free card for this round!

[x4000]

OK, Eraser... Out with it!!! His Xness has given you a Get out of Nerf Free card for this round!

Well, I can't make promises on that, you know.  It sounds kosher from what I know so far, but if it turns out the tactic is "take out every planet in 3 minutes with eyebots" or something, that's obviously going to change things.

[Admiral]

Use Private Messaging!!!

[eRe4s3r]

Private what? There is nay such thing as privacy... ok ;p

My tactic only involves finding IV and III worlds that are un-alerted and kill off their command station with MK2 or MK3 eye bots. Of course not all at once, but early or late enough so that i could survive an attack from those few ships there ;p

This doesn't really work well with MK1's but so far i could kill every command station with eye bots , even shielded ones, of course i loose them in the process, the reason is i don't want III or IV worlds alerted and alive at all, those spawn very strong cross planet raids and so killing them stops all annoying reinforcements of tech 4 or tech 3 ships - Maybe a risky tactic, don't know how it works beyond 2 hours, but the first 2 hours i killed pretty much all IV and III worlds i could find. This obviously doesn't work against counter spies though and sometimes i need all mk1 eye bots to clean a wormhole from tractors and then move the MK2 and MK3 ones through quickly (a bunch of mk3's is enough to take down a command station).

So far i have not seen the AI desert its posts when attacked by cloaking stuff, so yeah.. The tech 1 planets are alerted but i clean their guard posts and leave them alone, keeps unit counts anywhere close to me very low, and i do this for ALL alerted planets (of course when i kill a command post, i continue neutering guard posts all around those to prevent more reinforcements coming in.

Obviously MK1's are only my turret cleaners, the really kick ass units are MK3 eye bots - as long as you get close and cuddly before firing its 1 salvo or 2 and then run and hide, taking down all turrets and the command station in the process.

[x4000]

Private what? There is nay such thing as privacy... ok ;p

My tactic only involves finding IV and III worlds that are un-alerted and kill off their command station with MK2 or MK3 eye bots. Of course not all at once, but early or late enough so that i could survive an attack from those few ships there ;p

This doesn't really work well with MK1's but so far i could kill every command station with eye bots , even shielded ones, of course i loose them in the process, the reason is i don't want III or IV worlds alerted and alive at all, those spawn very strong cross planet raids and so killing them stops all annoying reinforcements of tech 4 or tech 3 ships - Maybe a risky tactic, don't know how it works beyond 2 hours, but the first 2 hours i killed pretty much all IV and III worlds i could find. This obviously doesn't work against counter spies though and sometimes i need all mk1 eye bots to clean a wormhole from tractors and then move the MK2 and MK3 ones through quickly (a bunch of mk3's is enough to take down a command station).

So far i have not seen the AI desert its posts when attacked by cloaking stuff, so yeah.. The tech 1 planets are alerted but i clean their guard posts and leave them alone, keeps unit counts anywhere close to me very low, and i do this for ALL alerted planets (of course when i kill a command post, i continue neutering guard posts all around those to prevent more reinforcements coming in.

Obviously MK1's are only my turret cleaners, the really kick ass units are MK3 eye bots - as long as you get close and cuddly before firing its 1 salvo or 2 and then run and hide, taking down all turrets and the command station in the process.

Very cool, and definitely not something I feel like needs nerfing.  In the next release, when eyebots are auto-firing like you had previously requested, that will mess with your current strategy somewhat.  However, if you just "pause" them so that they can move but not fire, then unpause them when they are where you want them, you'll be back in business with potentially even better an element of surprise.  More details on that to come in the next prerelease, but I think it will work well in tandem with your strategy.

See, I don't nerf every good strategy!  Not every clever strategy is game-breaking.

[Echo35]

Private what? There is nay such thing as privacy... ok ;p

My tactic only involves finding IV and III worlds that are un-alerted and kill off their command station with MK2 or MK3 eye bots. Of course not all at once, but early or late enough so that i could survive an attack from those few ships there ;p

This doesn't really work well with MK1's but so far i could kill every command station with eye bots , even shielded ones, of course i loose them in the process, the reason is i don't want III or IV worlds alerted and alive at all, those spawn very strong cross planet raids and so killing them stops all annoying reinforcements of tech 4 or tech 3 ships - Maybe a risky tactic, don't know how it works beyond 2 hours, but the first 2 hours i killed pretty much all IV and III worlds i could find. This obviously doesn't work against counter spies though and sometimes i need all mk1 eye bots to clean a wormhole from tractors and then move the MK2 and MK3 ones through quickly (a bunch of mk3's is enough to take down a command station).

So far i have not seen the AI desert its posts when attacked by cloaking stuff, so yeah.. The tech 1 planets are alerted but i clean their guard posts and leave them alone, keeps unit counts anywhere close to me very low, and i do this for ALL alerted planets (of course when i kill a command post, i continue neutering guard posts all around those to prevent more reinforcements coming in.

Obviously MK1's are only my turret cleaners, the really kick ass units are MK3 eye bots - as long as you get close and cuddly before firing its 1 salvo or 2 and then run and hide, taking down all turrets and the command station in the process.

I've done similar things with Space Planes. Somtimes I'll even go in with them, clear out the Wormhole defences, and just move some forces on to another planet and completely skipping over low priority planets. Wiping them will only increase the AI progress and thats never a good thing unless its a high value target. Usually I'll just capture a ring of buffer planets around my home world and then just do guerilla strikes from there, taking out only planets that are worth the +10 progress.

[x4000]

I've done similar things with Space Planes. Somtimes I'll even go in with them, clear out the Wormhole defences, and just move some forces on to another planet and completely skipping over low priority planets. Wiping them will only increase the AI progress and thats never a good thing unless its a high value target. Usually I'll just capture a ring of buffer planets around my home world and then just do guerilla strikes from there, taking out only planets that are worth the +10 progress.

Guerilla strikes are definitely an integral part of this game, and I'm glad to see you guys doing cool things with them.  Definitely not something I'd nerf in general, only if there was some specific overpowered exploit.

Now, on the other hand I might make the AI react more interestingly to some of the guerilla raids, but that's a separate issue and isn't a nerf, it's just expanding the interest of the game -- raids would still work, you'd just have to content with a new host of behaviors with the AI, etc.  I don't have any particular such improvements right at this second, but anyway that's my feeling on it.